HMS Enterprise (1774)
Painting of the hull model of HMS Enterprise by Joseph Marshall, 1777
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| History | |
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 Great Britain
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| Name: | HMS Enterprise |
| Ordered: | January 1771 |
| Builder: | Deptford Royal Dockyard |
| Laid down: | 9 September 1771 |
| Launched: | 24 August 1774 |
| Completed: | 20 June 1775 |
| Commissioned: | April 1775 |
| Fate: | Broken up, August 1817 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Enterprise-class frigate |
| Tons burthen: | 593 89⁄94 (bm) |
| Length: |
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| Beam: | 33 ft 6 in (10.21 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 11 ft 0 in (3.35 m) |
| Sail plan: | Full-rigged ship |
| Complement: | 200 officers and men |
| Armament: |
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The fifth HMS Enterprise (sometimes spelled Enterprize), 28 guns, was the name ship of a class of twenty-seven sixth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy. Enterprise was built at Deptford Royal Dockyard, England, launched in August 1774, and was commissioned in April 1775 under the command of Captain Sir Thomas Rich.
Enterprise served throughout the American Revolutionary War as cruiser and convoy escort. On 7 June 1780, Enterprise, under command of Captain Patrick Leslie (not to be confused with Patrick Leslie), was at anchor in the Bay of Gibraltar with other ships of the Royal Navy. At about 1:30am, Enterprise saw some vessels drifting toward the harbour. When they came within hailing distance, the seaman on watch called a challenge. The six drifting vessels were set afire by their crews, who made their escape in small boats, leaving the flaming hulks drifting toward the British ships. Captain Leslie fired a three-gun salvo to warn the other ships, cut his anchor lines to let Enterprise drift away from the hulks, and then opened fire on the hulks in an attempt to sink them. With the Spanish fleet waiting just outside the harbour for any British ships trying to escape, the British seamen took to small boats and, at great peril to their lives, boarded the flaming hulks to attach lines to pull them away from their own ships and burn themselves out.
After this action and continued service in the Mediterranean, she sailed under the command of Captain John Payne on 27 April 1782, for the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean. In October 1782, now under the command of Captain William Carnegie, she captured the 22-gun American privateer Mohawk, which the Royal Navy took into service under her existing name, before selling her in 1783.
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